Rev. Jim Dant
Sunday, December 1, 2024
4:00 pm (Eastern Time) [not 3:00 as usual]
“Understanding the Development of the Christmas Nativity Stories
Through the Lens of Jewish Midrash
(What You Were NOT Taught in Sunday School)”
To Register for Zoom: Click here.
Jim Dant was born Jewish, christened Roman Catholic, baptized Baptist and received his doctorate from a Presbyterian Seminary. (He’s ecumenical.) He survived a tumultuous childhood — riddled with divorces, adoption and more divorces — He’s had two mothers, seven fathers and a host of step, half and adopted siblings. (He’s empathetic.)
He is the proud father of three daughters, two granddaughters, and one grandson. (He’s broke.)
Jim is a graduate of Georgia State University, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Columbia Theological Seminary. He has also enjoyed post-graduate studies at Princeton Theological Seminary, Hebrew College, Macon State College, and the
University of the West Indies. He has received certifications in spiritual direction, group spiritual direction, Ignatian retreat direction from Mercy Center in Burlingame, California, and is an RYT500 Yoga Instructor. (He’s fairly educated.)
Jim currently serves as co-pastor of Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco, California and is the recently retired Senior Minister of First Baptist Church, Greenville, South Carolina. Over his career, Jim has also pastored in the state of Georgia, taught at Mercer University, Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology, Brewton Parker College, and led conferences throughout the USA, as well as, in Israel, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. (He’s experienced.)
He has written nine books, several series of curriculum, numerous articles and essays…and a poem for Highlights magazine when he was nine years old. (He’s published.)
Finally, Jim has been known to ride motorcycles on the weekends, is an avid concert attendee, an ironman triathlete, a student of the classical guitar, bass guitarist for one of San Francisco’s newest and best cover bands, and a semi-professional Texas Hold’em
Poker player. (He’s fun.)
Ani Zonneveld
Sunday, January 12, 2025
3:00 pm (Eastern Time)
Zoom Event
To Register for Zoom: Click here.
“Progressive Islam – Universal Values vs. the Politics of Human Rights – What’s the Difference Between a Progressive Muslim and Other Muslims?”
Founder and President of Muslims for Progressive Values, an international human rights organization that advocates for social justice and equality for all, Ani Zonneveld is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; on the U.N. Inter-agency Faith Advisory Council, and recently commissioned by the U.N. Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect to create an anti-hate speech workshop for Muslim communities. In 2023 she was selected as an “inspirational woman” in the LA Times. Recently, Ani co-authored and co-designed an “Inclusive Islam Curriculum Rooted in Human Rights” for children ages 4-7 and co-authored a chapter titled “Transnational Progressive Islam: Theory, Networks, and Lived Experience” for a book titled “Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives”. She is the subject of a documentary title “al-imam” featuring Ani’s activism works, and screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
Dr. Philip Dorroll
Sunday, April 27, 2025
3:00 pm
Location to be announced
“Religion, Politics, and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine”
In person and via Zoom
Philip Dorroll is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and co-chair of the Eastern Orthodox Studies Unit at the American Academy of Religion. His research and writing focus on the history of Islamic and Orthodox Christian theology in Arabic and Turkish, and the history of Orthodox Christian-Muslim relations. His research and writing have also been published in such venues as Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies, Journal of Islamic Studies, Public Orthodoxy, and The Wheel: A Journal of Orthodox Christian Thought and Culture. He is the author of the book Islamic Theology in the Turkish Republic, co-author of the book Spatial Politics in Istanbul, and co-editor of the books Maturidi Theology: A Bilingual Reader and The Oxford Handbook of Religion in Turkey (forthcoming).